Britain enters the perilous waters of coalition government today - almost exactly 70 years since the last one came into being.
That was on May 10 1940 - Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition, with Labour leader Clement Attlee as his deputy. It was a coalition that, inevitably, had its internal tensions, but it achieved its objective: victory over Adolf Hitler.
A few days after its formation, Churchill explained its purpose in the House of Commons with these words: “You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never before surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory.” A similar coalition, under Lloyd George, was formed during the First World War.
There have been only two peacetime coalitions in the United Kingdom over the past century: from 1918 to 1922, also under Lloyd George, in the aftermath of the World War I - it was ended by a rebellion of Tory MPs as it “lingered on increasingly rudderless” according to one observer at the time - and the national government from 1931 to 1935 to combat the economic crisis.
But since then Liberal Democrats have governed with Labour in both Scotland and Wales since devolution.
The United Kingdom as a whole seems to have an antipathy towards coalitions, and there were some senior figures in both the Conservative and Labour parties who tried to persuade their leaders not to enter into one with the Liberal Democrats.
In February 1974, after that general election had produced a stalemate, prime minister Edward Heath — although winning fewer seats for the Tories than Labour had achieved — tried to form a coalition with the Liberal Party under Jeremy Thorpe.
But his blandishments failed and Harold Wilson returned to 10 Downing Street.
Disraeli put the case against coalitions succinctly: “England does not love coalitions.” Herbert Asquith was more scathing about them. He said: “Nothing is so demoralising to the tone of public life, or so belittling to the stature of public men.”
PA